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A Memo To MN Fighters
By
Ray Kilgore

Willie Carter trained boxers for over forty years and knows how to move a fighter from grade school to high school in short time. However, Carter's convinced many Minnesota boxers play career suicide because they lack a basic understanding of the role quality trainers play in their careers.
When Mike Tyson lost his undefeated record and title to 42-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas, HBO's commentator Larry Merchant skillfully observed that Tyson firing his long-time trainer Kevin Rooney was a factor. Seventeen years later many boxers haven't learned from Tyson's mistake and Carter doesn't see this getting better.
Why fighters think they can train themselves is a mystery. "If you want to be the boss you gotta pay the cost." Carter has been associated with Muhammad Ali; received advice from trainer Anglo Dundee; talked with the late Bill Slayton, who worked with former WBO champ Lamon Brewster, and he's seen the work ethic of former heavyweight champ Mike Weaver in person.
Carter insists Minnesota boxers need "real" training camps. "There's too much city life. They train at 4:30 in the evening and after training they stop off at this place or that place to see friends. A fighter needs to be in the bed by a certain time and train at certain times." Carter maintains Minnesota boxers will never advance to the next level without quality training. "I don't care how good you are you can't train yourself." "You have guys working the bag for four or five rounds and running two miles and say they are ready for the fight. How you gonna tell me, the trainer, when you're done training?"
Carter speaks from experience because when he turned professional in 1967, he took fights to pay bills. Carter, born in Oklahoma, trained under the guidance of Pat O'Grady whose son Sean became a world champ. O'Grady told Carter about the dangers of short notice fights, yet Carter turned a deaf ear, "I was just like these guys and didn't listen." Carter's fighter Shirone Baltcher, who battled Jon Laboda on the undercard of Bonsante-Vanda, is a good example of this problem; Baltcher took the fight on three days notice and wasn't prepared. "I told him 'son I am not going to let you get hurt. You don't take fights for money you have to train.'"
Carter believes trainers are also to blame for boxers not taking the sport seriously. He says it's not uncommon for a guy to walk up to a trainer and ask him to work his corner the night before a fight or the day of the fight. Carter argues trainers are armchair psychologists, and most therapists need more than one or several meetings to get results and boxing and coaches are no different. "Trainers are masterminds who know how to motivate and psych a fighter up and show them when things are going wrong."
The sixty-three-year old retired school official maintains good trainers look after the well-being of fighters. Carter points to Raul Gracia as a text book example of poor management; Garcia fought Bobby Kliewer on the undercard of Bonnsante-Vanda, and Kliewer came in as a middleweight while Gracia tipped the scales at welterweight. "What good trainer would allow that to happen?"
Circus acts like Gracia-Kliewer and guys with 22 and 30 defeats concern Carter. "This is the reason Jesse Ventura laughed at Minnesota needing a commission. This is no different from wrestling from his perspective." Carter believes current Commissioner Scott Ledoux, whom he says is doing a good job, has headaches seeing fighters with no dedication to the sport. "When Scott was fighting, say what you want, but he always trained and that's why he has such a problem with these fighters today."
Minnesota is not without an example of good trainers says Carter. "You had Bill Kaehn's eighty-three-year old knowledge verses a young Otis Gage [Vanda's trainer]" and that was the difference in the fight." He adds, "Bill had the Bullet [Bonsante's ring name] adjust to Vanda after the first round, but Otis never seemed to help Vanda adjust." Carter says Gage made major mistakes even before the fight started. "He allowed guys to take pictures of the Predator [Vanda's ring name] in the dressing room and had a ton of people in and out when Vanda should have been with his private thoughts."
Carter's convinced race is not the reason for fighters' refusal to get quality trainers. Carter knows racism from his days shining shoes for twenty-five cents, yet Carter contends the only excuse boxers have is ignorance. "They [boxers] leave gyms because they don't want to pay dues, but they're losing knowledge. No one wants to pay their way," the grandfather of 13 observes. "I am tired of it. It's not the way it used to be. If I had a fighter and he listened he'd be a world champ!"

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